CAN I BUY OR CONVERT A SMARTPHONE TO A LINUX PHONE

[Brickwizard]

This is a question we are being asked more often, so to give you a little guidance the answer to both is yes but with limitations.
Can i buy a Linux smartphone?
The answer is yes, but there are very limited choices, and they are often expensive, some of the more popular brands [at time of writing] are
Librem
Murena
Pro 1X
Pine Phone

Can I convert my old smartphone to a Linux smartphone?
The answer again is yes But with many reservations, the first being at the moment the number of different models that can be converted is limited, second due to minimal resources and some components the installation can be challenging to say the least.

What choices do I have for a Linux smartphone OS?
At the time of writing there are a limited number of smartphone OS's based on Linux, some of those are,
Arch Linux Arm
Manjaro Arm
Mobian
openSUSE
Postmarket
Ubuntu touch

The distributions I list are mainly for use on ARM devices [Arm is a limited instruction set CPU used by many manufacturers under licence predominantly in android phones and tablets]

There you have the Brickwizard's current thoughts on the subject of Linux and smartphones, As I do not own one myself I have no personal recommendations as to which may be best.
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[wizardfromoz]

Moving to Linux Hardware.

 

[rado84]

Theoretically - you can. But Linux ARM doesn't support all devices, only the most expensive ones and not of all brands. Not to mention some manufacturers lock them, so you can't install anything else. Plus, there's one other obstacle because of which I haven't even tried to install it on any phone: Linux ARM (no matter the distro) only supports ONE sim card and rarely even a microSD card. I have 2 SIM cards + a microSD card. So what would I do with phone whose OS doesn't support two thirds of the hardware I need?

Suppose I could give up on one of the SIM cards bc it's internet only and the other SIM already has megabytes in the subscription plan, but I literally can't live without the SD card. It's 512 GB, 100 GB of which is my entire music collection, the rest is for movies and TV shows when I go somewhere away from home. In the week when I was without an SD card (because the previous one died), I felt like a cripple without my music and without my favorite girl to watch (not porn, she's on my profile pic!).

So, if you don't use SD cards and/or a second SIM, you can try and install Linux ARM on a smartphone but first you must check the list of supported devices, otherwise you might brick your phone.

 

[vs2-free-users]

I have bought a PinePhone in the past. It works but the battery only lasts a few hours. Unfortunately, this makes it unsuitable for daily use. I currently have an Android cell phone with e/os on it and I think that's the best compromise to start with.

 

[Raluxs]

In the dark ages of PDA (Personal Digital Assitant) I could install Linux Opie distro on a HP iPaq. It was a lower end model and could not do much with it, but there were ipaq cellphones so maybe these could work with linux too

 

[truckerDave]

Last I checked (it's been a while), not many cellular companies support the use of Linux phones.

I have been using Verizon for some time now due to my travels as a truck driver. They seem to have the better reputation with truck drivers when it comes to coverage.

After I purchased my Pine Phone, I found out Verizon wouldn't allow it. Yes, I didn't do my homework. And "maybe" they support it now.

So, make sure the carrier you intend to use supports using Linux phones.

 

[Bagheera]

This is a question we are being asked more often, so to give you a little guidance the answer to both is yes but with limitations.
Can i buy a Linux smartphone?
The answer is yes, but there are very limited choices, and they are often expensive, some of the more popular brands [at time of writing] are
Librem
Murena
Pro 1X
Pine Phone

Can I convert my old smartphone to a Linux smartphone?
The answer again is yes But with many reservations, the first being at the moment the number of different models that can be converted is limited, second due to minimal resources and some components the installation can be challenging to say the least.

What choices do I have for a Linux smartphone OS?
At the time of writing there are a limited number of smartphone OS's based on Linux, some of those are,
Arch Linux Arm
Manjaro Arm
Mobian
openSUSE
Postmarket
Ubuntu touch

The distributions I list are mainly for use on ARM devices [Arm is a limited instruction set CPU used by many manufacturers under licence predominantly in android phones and tablets]

There you have the Brickwizard's current thoughts on the subject of Linux and smartphones, As I do not own one myself I have no personal recommendations as to which may be best.
.

Strictly speaking isn't Android actually a flavour of Linux for mobiles anyway?
Not to be confused with GoogleAndroid.

For those wanting an effectively de-googled phone I like the sound of LineageOS and /e/OS. D'you know much about these mobile OS? I've heard /e/OS is more reliable than Lineage.

 

[Brickwizard]

Strictly speaking isn't Android actually a flavour of Linux for mobiles anyway?
Not to be confused with GoogleAndroid.

Android was first developed by google as an off shoo of Fedora, since then it has taken on a life of its own,it has a modified Linux core, but in general is not considered a GNU-Linux distribution [same applies to Google Chrome ] although I try to keep up with new developments in the world of Linux I do not have a mobile phone [or tablet]. to test with

 

[bob466]

I'm happy with an Android phone.

 

[nikNiz]

At the moment the best Linux smartphone is the Furiphone FLX1 with FuriOs (Debian)

 

[t13]

For those interested in this, as its not mentioned here

GrapheneOS

Its a very stable project, offering more control over your handset, eg Native Call recording built in (regardless of geolocation), auto-rotating hotspot MAC Addr, Duress wipe pin to erase handset at any pin prompt, etc

Also completely de-googled, which is a main for those not looking to be spied on every day